Türkiye
24.01.01
Urgent Interventions
Turkey: Arrest / Detention / Release
URGENT ACTION - THE OBSERVATORY
TUR 002/9709/OBS 013.03
Arrest / Detention / Release
TURKEY
24th January 2001
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the FIDH and OMCT, has received new information regarding the following situation in Turkey.
New Information :
The Observatory has been informed by Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), International PEN, that Esber Yagmurdereli, lawyer, playwright and human rights activist, was freed on 18 January 2001, after a review of his sentence under an amnesty announced in December 2000.
The Observatory wishes to thank all those institutions, organisations and individuals who intervened on his behalf.
Reminder of the situation :
Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli, a lawyer and prominent defender of human rights, was arrested on Monday, June 1st, 1998, in Ankara, while visiting his lawyer. He was to be detained in the Chankirj prison near Ankara. This arrest resulted from his refusal to provide a medical certificate to support the presidential claim that he was pardoned because of his health problems.
Previously, Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli, had been arrested by police forces, on October 19th, 1997, while leaving the studios of the KANAL D television station. He had been sentenced to serve a jail term of twenty-three years.
Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli, shortly before the overthrow of the government in 1980, had been sentenced to a five-year jail term and charged with « supporting illegal political movements ». While he was serving his jail term, the militaries in power, following the 1980 overthrow, decided, in 1982, to change his sentence from five years to a life sentence. After serving fifteen years in jail, he was released on probation. After his release, he continued to pursue his activities in favour of fundamental liberties and was invited to several demonstrations which resulted in a new sentence of ten months. He was charged with separatist propaganda on the grounds of Article 8 of the Anti-Terrorist Law.
Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli made several appeals during his ten-month jail term, all of which had been refused. Consequently, upon his arrest in October 1997, he was facing what was left of the sentence of life imprisonment handed down by the Military Court in 1982, as well as the ten months sentence pronounced by the Security Court.
Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli was finally released on Monday, November 10th, 1997, after being pardoned by President Demirel. Nonetheless, this pardon does not resolve Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli’s situation. Indeed, the decision that had been taken regarding his case only postponed, for one year, the two sentences pronounced against him.
Geneva-Paris, 24 January 2001
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line: Fax: + 033 (0) 1 55 80 83 92
Tel: FIDH 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 OMCT +41 22 809 49 39
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
TUR 002/9709/OBS 013.03
Arrest / Detention / Release
TURKEY
24th January 2001
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the FIDH and OMCT, has received new information regarding the following situation in Turkey.
New Information :
The Observatory has been informed by Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), International PEN, that Esber Yagmurdereli, lawyer, playwright and human rights activist, was freed on 18 January 2001, after a review of his sentence under an amnesty announced in December 2000.
The Observatory wishes to thank all those institutions, organisations and individuals who intervened on his behalf.
Reminder of the situation :
Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli, a lawyer and prominent defender of human rights, was arrested on Monday, June 1st, 1998, in Ankara, while visiting his lawyer. He was to be detained in the Chankirj prison near Ankara. This arrest resulted from his refusal to provide a medical certificate to support the presidential claim that he was pardoned because of his health problems.
Previously, Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli, had been arrested by police forces, on October 19th, 1997, while leaving the studios of the KANAL D television station. He had been sentenced to serve a jail term of twenty-three years.
Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli, shortly before the overthrow of the government in 1980, had been sentenced to a five-year jail term and charged with « supporting illegal political movements ». While he was serving his jail term, the militaries in power, following the 1980 overthrow, decided, in 1982, to change his sentence from five years to a life sentence. After serving fifteen years in jail, he was released on probation. After his release, he continued to pursue his activities in favour of fundamental liberties and was invited to several demonstrations which resulted in a new sentence of ten months. He was charged with separatist propaganda on the grounds of Article 8 of the Anti-Terrorist Law.
Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli made several appeals during his ten-month jail term, all of which had been refused. Consequently, upon his arrest in October 1997, he was facing what was left of the sentence of life imprisonment handed down by the Military Court in 1982, as well as the ten months sentence pronounced by the Security Court.
Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli was finally released on Monday, November 10th, 1997, after being pardoned by President Demirel. Nonetheless, this pardon does not resolve Mr. Esber Yagmurdereli’s situation. Indeed, the decision that had been taken regarding his case only postponed, for one year, the two sentences pronounced against him.
Geneva-Paris, 24 January 2001
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line: Fax: + 033 (0) 1 55 80 83 92
Tel: FIDH 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 OMCT +41 22 809 49 39
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch